In recent years, the trend in personal computers, especially the notebook-type, is to reduce their size. This was accompanied by a strong demand for the reduction in size of their components including electrical connectors. Receptacle contacts used in electrical connectors are usually of the type described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 87-27513. Such a receptacle contact comprises a flat main body, arms extending from one edge of the main body and lances for latching in the connector housing. The disadvantage of such receptacle contacts was their large size due to the configuration in which the arms and the lances were arranged sequentially in the longitudinal direction.
Receptacle contacts offered for the purpose of the reduction of lengthwise dimensions are known in the art, such as for example, a receptacle contact described in the Japanese Patent Publication No. 91-45873. This receptacle contact 200 is shown in FIG. 10. It has contacting arms 202 extending in one direction from the sides of a nearly rectangular base plate 201 and conductor-connecting members 204 extending in the opposite direction from the edges of the base plate 201. The contacting arms 202 have lances 206 cut out of them. The free ends 203 of the lances 206 are located on the same side as the fixed ends 205 of the contacting arms 202. The receptacle contacts 200 are inserted in a housing (not shown) with the contacting arms 202 and the lances 206 cutting into the inside walls of the housing, thus providing for the proper positioning and securing of the contacts in the housing. However, in such a design, the contacting arms 202 themselves are fixed to the walls rendering them non-elastic, which does not allow them to be spring-loaded. Another problem is that the insertion of such receptacle contacts requires a considerable force due to the fact that the lances 206 lack springiness.
Considering the foregoing, the purpose of this invention is to offer an electrical connector wherein a small-sized receptacle contact distinguished by its small size, and a low force that is required for the contact to be inserted in a housing with sufficient springiness of the contact arms.